Sara Blakely on Writing Your Billion Dollar Story with Lewis Howes
Sara BlakelySpeaker- Lewis HowesHost
Key ideas
Blakely retells turning $5,000 and two years of rejection into Spanx, arguing that showing up in person, selling on the floor and redefining failure can offset inexperience.
From a machine transcript of the audio. Quotes link to the moment they are said.
- 1
Show up when the calls fail
Blakely says manufacturers hung up or declined, so she took a week off work and visited North Carolina plants in person; weeks later a man from North Carolina called to say he would make it, citing his three daughters. She tells a similar story about Neiman Marcus: sensing she was losing the buyer mid-pitch, she took her to a bathroom and demonstrated the product on herself, and won placement in seven stores.
- 2
Choose a name people cannot forget
Blakely says she noticed a strong K sound in Kodak and Coca-Cola, had heard from comedian friends that the sound gets laughs, and says her own research favored made-up words, which are also easier to trademark. She admits the cost: people hung up thinking it was a prank, and some department stores found the name too risque. She says she had no advertising money and that nobody forgets it.
- 3
Sell it yourself, on the floor
Blakely says landing a retailer was when she worked harder, not when she had arrived. She describes traveling for two years to department stores, rallying staff before opening and then standing in the department for eight hours a day. By her account this turned store employees into advocates, and customers told her what to make next.
- 4
Not knowing the rules can help
Blakely says others who had pursued Neiman Marcus for years at trade shows asked how she got in, and that she had simply called, not knowing trade shows existed. She wrote her own patent from a bookstore guide when lawyers cost too much, paying one to write the claims. She adds that this takes the courage to act without training in the field.
- 5
Measure failure by not trying
Blakely says her father asked her and her brother each week what they had failed at, and was disappointed if they had nothing to report. She credits this with changing how she defined failure, away from outcomes. She later says a close view of her own mortality, after losing people close to her young, also freed her from worrying about looking foolish.
In Sara’s words
“But what I didn't realize I was doing was I was building a sales force not on my payroll”
Sara Blakely·Sara Blakely on Writing Your Billion Dollar Story with Lewis Howes·Watch at 24:49(opens the original in a new tab)“What you don't know can be your greatest asset if you let it because it ensures you're going to do it differently.”
Sara Blakely·Sara Blakely on Writing Your Billion Dollar Story with Lewis Howes·Watch at 27:05(opens the original in a new tab)“So he was reframing my definition of failure. So failure for me became about not trying, not the outcome.”
Sara Blakely·Sara Blakely on Writing Your Billion Dollar Story with Lewis Howes·Watch at 28:28(opens the original in a new tab)About this entry
- Published
- Oct 24, 2016
- Channel
- Lewis Howes
- Type
- Video
- Length
- 59:54
- Language
- English
- Added
- Nov 2, 2026
- Source last checked
- Nov 2, 2026
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Draft. Written by us with AI from a machine transcript of the video’s audio (Whisper) and checked against it. Machine transcripts can mishear; each quote links to the moment so you can hear it. Not yet rights-reviewed.
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